abasement
abasement — noun
1. cruel or disrespectful treatment intended to make someone feel worthless and los
cruel or disrespectful treatment intended to make someone feel worthless and lose their dignity
The manager's constant criticism was a deliberate abasement of his junior staff.
deliberate abasement — noun phrase used as subject complement
Public abasement of political opponents has become a common tactic in election campaigns.
public abasement — adjective + noun collocation
Sirin felt the meeting was not a debate but a systematic abasement of anyone who questioned the CEO.
The prison's daily ritual of abasement was designed to break the will of new inmates.
- humiliation
more common and emotionally direct; focuses on the feeling of being exposed as foolish or inadequate
- degradation
emphasises a decline to a lower, less respectable moral or social state
- belittlement
focuses specifically on making someone seem unimportant through words or actions
- exaltation
the act of praising someone highly or raising their status
- elevation
raising someone to a higher rank or position
文法句型
the abasement of [someone]
用法筆記
This sense focuses on the action of the person who does the abasing — the subject performing the act. To distinguish from sense 2 (STATE OF HUMILIATION), check whether the sentence describes an action directed at someone else (sense 1) or a condition someone is in (sense 2).
常見錯誤
2. a state of deep shame or loss of self-respect, especially after being treated cr
a state of deep shame or loss of self-respect, especially after being treated cruelly, losing social status, or being forced into a position of weakness
After the financial scandal, the once-proud banker lived in a state of total abasement.
state of total abasement — core collocation for this sense
The defeated general was forced into public abasement, kneeling before the victors on the steps.
forced into public abasement — passive construction with preposition 'into'
Constanza's novel explores the emotional abasement of a refugee family stripped of everything they owned.
Some religious traditions view self-abasement, such as prolonged fasting and silent retreats, as a path to spiritual growth.
- humiliation
more widely used in everyday English; focuses on the painful feeling of being exposed in front of others
- disgrace
emphasises loss of reputation or honour in the eyes of a community
- shame
an internal feeling of embarrassment or dishonour; broader and less formal
- degradation
stresses a decline to a morally or socially lower condition
文法句型
in abasement
state of abasement
self-abasement
用法筆記
This sense describes the resulting condition of someone who has been abased, not the act of abasing another person. Frequently found after prepositions: 'in abasement', 'to abasement', 'into abasement'. The compound 'self-abasement' is common in religious and psychological contexts.